Korean Job Discussion Forums

maxxx_power · Joined: 17 Mar 2003 Location: BWAHAHAHAHA! I'M FREE!!!!!!!

Just curious if others out there have been shat upon by their former employers like I have.

My previous employer (as everyone here that has read my previous posts should know I have grown to love) apparantly reported me to immigration as a runner! This is all despite the fact that I gave a 60 day notice, and agreed to work an additional 30 days on top of that in exchange for the pay he was holding hostage (this was all written down, signed, and witnessed). He even accompanied me to immigration to cancel my visa.

I finally found a new position that I love, great hours, excellent location, and a boss from heaven that gives overtime. When it came time to submit the paperwork for my new E-2 she came and asked me why I had pulled a runner and that when she called my previous employer he said that I was a terrible teacher and had left without notice!

Thankfully after presenting all my documentation to my new boss she believed me rather than the snake that is my former employer. I still feel as if I lost some credibility in her eyes because of what my old boss said about me.

Which brings me to my question; What sort of things have your old employers said about you? Have those things affected your ability to find a new job or obtain another work visa?

What brings another human to blatantly lie about someone, was this about face?

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

If we were to place bets, I would wager that it was anger. In replacing you after you decided you weren't going to work for the year, you ended up costing the owner a lot money in replacing you with new recruiter fees. Then they had to face the thousand questions of "what happened to the other teacher? He wasn't here a year." from parents asking what's going on. And if the new teacher that arrived was useless, parents will complain about how the old teacher was much better and why can't the school hire good teachers. As well, bad teachers lead to students being pulled and placed in other schools, directly contributing to a decline in the schools revenue as acting as yet another cost directly due to your quitting early.

All coming together after you were long gone from the school. Thus creating an incentive for the owner to share their pain.

That would be my wager.

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

This is the official line from a few of the teachers at my school plus to my face(but I really can't trust that).
Apparently he thinks I am the best teacher the hagwon has ever had(isn't that sweet) and there has been 50+ so that makes me feel good. Also, he apparently said in Korean that I have my $hit together and know how to handle kids very well.
The back up of this is that I am leaving in 7 weeks and he is offering me a 300 000 won a month raise if i come back( I don't think it will be enough, i need a rest)

jlb · Joined: 18 Sep 2003

I got fired illegally from my job about 2 months ago and the hogwan owners told immigration and the labor office that I quit. Far from it! They told all the other teachers and the parents that I quit as well. I think they tried to brainwash me into believing that I quit because they just kept saying it over and over to anyone who would listen...it didn't work Smile

The owner kept on lying to the last day at the labor office, still pretending that I quit but that the plane ticket and 1 million won they were giving me was some kind of generous parting gift on their part, not what the law required

One of the previous foreign teachers also got fired from this same school and they told all the kids (even the kindy kids Confused

) that she quit and was going back to the USA because she hated them all and never wanted to see them again. That would have traumatized me if I was 5 years old.

So anyway...the blatant lies really disturbed me. Kids Herald School in Cheonan...I just shake me head.

It was enjoyable to say to the owner after the whole fiasco, "Lies, lies, lies, how do you live with yourself?" She got a little embarrassed and finally said, "I don't care what you think." But I think she did Very Happy

I wonder how she sleeps at night?

Squid · Joined: 25 Jul 2003 Location: Sunny Anyang

The amount you care about what other people say about you is inversely proportional to your self esteem.

Squid the sage

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

However squid,
A compliment to improve the self esteem never hurt anybody every now and then Smile

maxxx_power · Joined: 17 Mar 2003 Location: BWAHAHAHAHA! I'M FREE!!!!!!!

jlb · Joined: 18 Sep 2003

Squid wrote:
The amount you care about what other people say about you is inversely proportional to your self esteem.

I don't think I have an issue with self esteem....it was more the issue of immigration trying to kick me out of the country because if you quit (which I didn't) apparently you only have a certain amount of time before you have to leave.

Also, I wanted the one-month severance pay I was owed because they fired me without notice. By the owners of my school lying it made everything more complicated for me at the labor board and immigration and that's why I cared about it.

K-in-C · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Heading somewhere

princess · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: soul of Asia

Always be sure to get a letter of recommendation from your boss when you leave. That will cancel out anythng bad he or she may say about you after you are gone.

Tobacco Fiend · Joined: 22 Jan 2003

Today I received a very angry email from my current part-time employer (not my main job, thank GOD!):

"You're doing me a disservice, and you're doing my students a disservice . . ."

Apparently I had overlooked one of the criteria in this lady's grading guidlines. She was paying me to grade TOEFL essays on a twice-a-week basis.

And YES, she's . . . KOREAN!

US educated, but born and bred and Korea, so of course she has no manners, no native intelligence, no common sense.

Consequently, I am threatened with TERMINATION for not having graded her latest batch of essays EXACTLY as she would have graded them herself. ("I hope this isn't the last chance we have to work together . . .")

Thank Heaven for tender mercies: My day job provides more than enough where-with-all to live on. I don't need any round-the-bend cuckoo-ga-gaa-land Korean chick paying me for bullhickey.

Moral of the story:

When an irrevocably demented Korean tries giving you guff, I say,

Ha, ha,

Ha ha HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Eff you too, you wanna-be ubermensch of the slant-eyed persuasion.

Gotta stick it to em right back.

Jesus, where did that precious old stereotype of the hyper-polite Asiatic ever come from? Sure as heck didn't come from Korea!

TF

P.S.: True moral of this story: Avoid the English Spectrum crap listings. Go with Dave's all the way!

Zed · Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Location: Shakedown Street

K-in-C: I would be wondering if this is a convenient time to be coming up with excuses to get rid of you and avoid paying you a severence package and return flight. Another friend of mine was given the axe in Changwon after 11.5 months. Damn suspicious don't you think? How far are you into your contract?

Then again, I think you said that you decided to give notice so perhaps I'm off-base here.

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

K-in-C · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Location: Heading somewhere

ulsanchris · Joined: 19 Jun 2003 Location: take a wild guess

at my first job in korea whenever i brought a student to the vice director. the student would always try to come up with an excuse. the foreign teacher misunderstood, the foriegn teacher is wrong. THe vice director would always turn to me and say i misunderstood. I would have to insist that i was right. Sometimes several times over. fortunately he always believed me in the end. One thing you could have done is had your director talk to the rest of the class. That will almost always settle the matter in your favour. Unfortunately i think it is too later for you to do this.